109 Inspiring Quotes That Will Change Your Life

Look, we’re the first to admit that [insert twee adjective here] quotes are mostly godawful – but like eating eating Nutella with your fingers straight from the jar, these things have their time and place.

Bite-size nuggets that can provide a quick mind snack, no matter how embarrassing and ungourmet, are worth having within reach in your mental pantry. And anyway… no one needs to know! Except maybe your endlessly magnanimous housemates! To commit them to memory, scribble your favourites in lipstick on the bathroom mirror. Cover the inside of your toilet door in Post-it notes. Or use your phone to record someone with a sultry oozy voice reading these out, so that you can play them on repeat as you’re falling asleep (can someone get us Nigella’s phone number?).

Win at life, live forever, let brainwashing commence.

P.S. If you happen to know the repeat offender behind the “Unknown” pseudonym, please congratulate them on our behalf for being a total sage.

 

A: THE DAILY GRIND

1. “Don’t do it because it’s your job, do it because you can.” – Seth Godin

2. “Find a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

3. “The only way to succeed is to not worry about what anyone else is doing.” – Unknown

4. “Try to learn something about everything, and everything about something.” – Thomas H. Huxley

5. “Education is the ability to entertain an idea, without agreeing with it.” – Aristotle

6. “Done is better than perfect.” – Mark Zuckerberg

7. “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.” – Henry Ford

8. “In the realm of ideas, everything depends on enthusiasm; in the real world, all rests on perseverance.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

9. “Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.” – Steve Jobs

10. “The way to learn the most is when you are doing something with such enjoyment that you don’t notice the time passing.” – Albert Einstein

11. “Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.” – Bill Gates

12. “Be so good they can’t ignore you.” – Steve Martin

13. “Listen to your customers, not your competitors.”  – Joel Spolsky

14. “The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” – Steve Jobs

15. “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” – Farrah Gray

16. “Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things.” – Peter F Drucker

 

B: TOUGH LOVE

17. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.” – Pablo Picasso

18. “Things may come to those who wait, but only the things left by those who hustle.” – Abraham Lincoln

19. “Do one thing every day that scares you.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

20. “To avoid criticism, say nothing, do nothing, be nothing.” – Fred Shero

21. “Replace fear of the unknown with curiosity.” – Dany Gokey

22. “Fall seven times, stand up eight.” – Japanese proverb

23. “Even if you fall on your face, you’re still moving forward.” – Victor Kiam

24. “Stop being afraid of what could go wrong, and focus on what could go right.” – Unknown

25. “Any fool can know. The point is to understand.” – Albert Einstein

26. “People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those who are doing it.” – George Bernard Shaw

27. “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” – Stephen R. Covey

28. “The what-ifs and the should-haves will eat your brain.” – John O’Callaghan

29. “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” – Henry David Thoreau

30. “The only expectations you should live up to are the ones you expect of yourself.” – Unknown

31. “You don’t need more time, you just need to decide.” – Seth Godin

32. “If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough.” – Donna Williams

33. “How you spend your time defines who you are. I try not to waste my time, because I don’t want to waste myself.” – Oprah Winfrey

34. “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford

35. “The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand

36. “The best revenge is massive success.” – Frank Sinatra

37. “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” -Wayne Gretzsky

38. “I don’t regret the things I’ve done, I regret the things I didn’t do when I had the chance.” – Unknown

 

C: POSITIVITY, DAMMIT

39. “If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.” – Maya Angelou

40. “Never say anything about yourself that you do not want to come true.” – Brian Tracy

41. “The best luck of all is the luck you make for yourself.” – Douglas MacArthur

42. “Start where you are. Use what you have. Do what you can.” – Arthur Ashe

43. “If you don’t love what you do, quit. Life’s too short to be miserable.” – Rajeeb Dey

44. “Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” – Jim Rohn

45. “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

46. “It’s easier to go down a hill than up it, but the view is much better at the top.” – Henry Ward Beecher

47. “You get in life what you have the courage to ask for.” – Oprah Winfrey

48. “Sometimes life is going to hit you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith.” – Steve Jobs

49. “Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.” – Carl Bard

50. “Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” – Anais Nin

51. “If you hear a voice within you say ‘you cannot paint,’ then by all means paint and that voice will be silenced.” – Vincent Van Gogh

52. “Life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll

53. “The pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity. The optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.” – Unknown

54. “Big shots are only little shots who keep shooting.” – Christopher Morley

55. “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” – Abraham Lincoln

 

D: STUCK IN THE MUD?

56. “When you have exhausted all possibilities, remember this: you haven’t.” – Thomas Edison

57. “If opportunity doesn’t knock, build a door.” – Milton Berle

58. “If you can’t find a way, create one.” – Unknown

59. “Do not go where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path, and leave a trail. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

60. “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting different results.” – Benjamin Franklin

61. “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” – Dolly Parton

62. “If you hold back in hurdles, you are going to fall over.” – Sally Pearson

63. “You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.” – Margaret Thatcher

64. “Your future is created by what you do today, not tomorrow.” – Robert Kiyosaki

65. “Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.” – John Wooden

66. “Luck is a dividend of sweat. The more you sweat, the luckier you get.” – Ray Kroc

67. “To be a good loser is to learn how to win.” – Carl Sandburg

68. “If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.” – Napoleon Hill

69. “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.” – Henry Ford

 

E: SWEET SWEET SUCCESS

70. “One important key to success is self-confidence. An important key to self-confidence is preparation.” – Arthur Ashe

71. “The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.” – Donald Kendall

72. “Your attitude, not your aptitude, will determine your altitude.” – Zig Ziglar

73. “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” – Albert Einstein

74. “Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.” – Tony Robbins

75. “Success isn’t just about what you accomplish, in life, it’s about what you inspire others to do.” – Unknown

76. “A goal is a dream with a deadline.” – Napoleon Hill

77. “Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.” – Robert Collier

78. “Try and fail, but never fail to try!” – Jared Leto

79. “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a damn fool about it.” – W.C. Fields

80. “In order to succeed, your desire for success should be greater than your fear of failure.” – Bill Cosby

81. “I am thankful for all of those who said NO to me. It’s because of them I’m doing it myself.” – Albert Einstein

82. “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.” – Bill Cosby

 

F: CREATIVITY KICK-UP-THE-BUM

83. “Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties.” – Erich Fromm

84. “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” – Jack London

85. “Originality is nothing but judicious imitation.” – Voltaire

86. “What one sees depends on how one sees.” – Søren Kierkegaard

87. “Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, the just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.” – Steve Jobs

88. “Creativity is contagious. Pass it on.” – Albert Einstein

89. “If you can express your soul, the rest ceases to matter.” – Hugh MacLeod

90. “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” – Albert Einstein

91. “Have no fear of perfection… you’ll never reach it.” – Salvador Dali

92. “Geeks are people who love something so much that all the details matter.” – Marissa Mayer

93. “Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working.” – Pablo Picasso

94. “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” – Leonardo da Vinci

95. “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it isn’t open.” – Frank Zappa

96. “Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will get you everywhere.” Albert Einstein

97. “Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.” – Scott Adams

 

G: YOU WHAT?

98. “The future, according to some scientists, will be exactly like the past, only far more expensive.” – John Sladek

99. “Be awesome! Be a book nut!” – Dr. Seuss

100. “My fake plants died because I did not pretend to water them.” – Mitch Hedberg

101. “At the end of the game, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.” – Italian proverb

102. “Follow your heart, but take your brain with you.” – Alfred Adler

103. “Be bold or italic; never regular.” – Unknown

104. “What I don’t like about office Christmas parties is looking for a job the next day.” – Phyllis Diller

105. “Always laugh when you can. It is cheap medicine.” – Lord Byron

106. “The wise does at once what the fool does at last.” – Baltasar Gracian

107. “Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try!” – Dr. Seuss

108. “You see things, and you say WHY? But I dream things that never were, and I say WHY NOT?” – George Bernard Shaw

109. “Someday I’ll be a unicorn.” – Freckles, the Shetland Pony

 

IT’S NEVER TOO LATE TO MAKE AMENDS

And here are a handful of last-minute additions. Thank you, sundry nice people (you know who you are) for pitching in:

“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try Again. Fail again. Fail better.” – Samuel Beckett

“There is no elevator to success. You have to take the stairs.” – Unknown

“Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.” – Suzy Kassem

“Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

 

Have we missed out anything else obvious on the inspiring quotes front? We probably have. Oops. Feel free to point out our glaring omissions in a comment, and we’ll stick yours in here too.

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